DENVER – Sometimes you can play a beautiful game and lose.
Winning a little bit ugly feels a lot better.
The Metropolitan State University of Denver men's basketball team shot just 44.1 percent from the field, and made only 57.9 percent of its free throws. The Roadrunners trailed by eight points after eight minutes, and they gave up 22 offensive rebounds – 16 of them in the first half.
And yet, MSU Denver got gritty and put an end to a three-game losing streak, using a 14-0 run early in the second half and just enough free throws in the closing minutes for a 71-64 Friday night over Colorado State University-Pueblo.
"Hopefully we can take this game and run with it and just play as hard as we can," MSU Denver coach
Michael Bahl said. "I thought we played extremely hard tonight and that's what I'm most proud of."
MSU Denver (7-7 overall, 5-5 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) is back in action again Saturday at 7 p.m. with another home game against New Mexico Highlands (12-4, 7-3).
On Friday,
Kendall McIntosh (Oakley, Calif./Freedom) had 18 points, 12 rebounds and three of the Roadrunners' eight blocked shots.
Druce Asah (Tracy, Calif./Tracy) scored 14 of his game-high 19 points in the second half. And
Garrett Carter (Rialto, Calif./Etiwanda) scored 11 of his 16 points in the second half while adding a career-best nine rebounds and four assists.
"You've just got to stay positive," Asah said of the team's approach to its three-game losing streak. "That's the only way you can get out of it."
And that's what they did, with plenty of contributions coming from players throughout the roster.
Elijah Straughter (Fresno, Calif./Clovis North) matched a career high with nine rebounds.
Jaryn Taylor (Yucaipa, Calif./Yucaipa) made all three of his shots – two of them 3-pointers – while scoring eight points in 20 minutes off the bench.
Cain van Heyningen (Amsterdam, Netherlands/Open schoolgemeenschap Bijlmer) matched his career high with four blocks.
The Roadrunners held CSU-Pueblo (5-11, 3-7) to 30.0-percent shooting, including 26.1 percent (12 of 46) in the first half.
"We didn't talk a whole lot about Pueblo this week," Bahl said. "It's more about (MSU Denver). What do we need to do? What are our trademarks? What is our foundation as a program? It needs to be on the defensive side."
About all that went wrong defensively in the first half was giving up those 16 offensive rebounds – they led to 14 second-chance points.
"He let us know," McIntosh said of Bahl's discussion at halftime. "Sixteen offensive rebounds, that's unacceptable. We decided to toughen up the second half and limited it."
Said Bahl: "I'm a little frustrated with the rebounding. But we overcame that and I'm very proud of that. They had 22 offensive rebounds – way too many. Sixteen in the first half – way too many. But we fought through."
Trailing 37-35 early in the second half, MSU Denver scored 14 straight points to take control.
"We were struggling offensively in the first half, but we held them to 31 points," Bahl said. "Then the second half our offense started to go, and we still held them to 33 points. That's winning basketball."
Now the Roadrunners hope to keep it going against a high-scoring New Mexico Highlands team.
"Energy, effort, communication, staying together – that's what we're focused on," Carter said.
